Physical Therapist Assistants in Alaska

A stethoscope and folded scrubs in a sunlit clinical workspace.

May 2025 wages · tax year 2026

You keep

$63,450

after federal, FICA and Alaska tax

Tax takes

$14,190

18.3% of the whole

Worth, in national money

$62,380

Alaska costs more than average

One filer, standard deduction, no dependants and nothing paid in before tax — the same household the rest of this page uses, so the comparison holds. City and school-district income taxes are not included.

Median here

$77,640

Kept after tax

$63,450

Worth in national money

$62,380

State rank

6

of 51 states

What this pays, and what it is worth

  • This is a good state for the work. Alaska pays physical therapist assistants a middle wage of $77,640, ranking 6 of 51 states and sitting about 13.54% above the national middle.
  • Middle of the local pack. Of 430 occupations Alaska reports figures for, this is number 170.
  • Prices here sit close to the national average, so the adjustment changes little. From $77,640 the take-home is $63,450, which is worth about $62,380 in comparable money. Tax does most of the work here, not cost of living. The average is higher, $77,670, because the best-paid pull it up.
  • Alaska's median for physical therapist assistants is $77,640, about 13.54% above the national figure and 6 of 51 states reporting. Whether that premium reaches the worker depends on the two adjustments below, which is the part a wage table cannot tell you.
  • In Alaska's occupational distribution, physical therapist assistants sits at 170 of 430 — neither quartile. This local position is what a resident compares against, and it is determined by the state's own labor market rather than by national patterns for this occupation.
  • Alaska's price level is near the national average, so price deflation is close to neutral for physical therapist assistants on its $77,640 median: $63,450 retained after tax becomes $62,380 in national-average terms. Where the price adjustment is small, the tax stack is the dominant determinant of the real outcome. The mean of $77,670 sits above the median, the right skew typical of wage data.

Compare this career across states

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Pay band: Physical Therapist Assistants

The state median for this job

50thpercentile, roughly
Lowest tenth earn under$65,640
Half earn under$77,640
Top tenth earn over$87,850
This salary$77,640

Positions between the published tenth, quarter, half, three-quarter and ninetieth points are estimated by straight line.

The same pay, somewhere else

The state median for this job

Compare with
$0take-home per year in Texas
Take-home in Alaska$63,450
Take-home in Texas$63,450
Once local prices are leveledBEA price parity+$2,914

The raise and the real gain point in opposite directions here.

State income tax and state price levels only. No city income tax, and no housing market.

What you would need there

The state median for this job

Moving to
$0now · $77,640$73,614
$73,614in Texas, for the same life
To match take-home only$77,640
You could take a cut of−$4,026
Prices in Texas97 vs 102

State taxes and state price levels only. No city tax, and no housing market.

Sources and assumptions
  • A median is the middle, not an offer. Half of physical therapist assistants in Alaska earn under $77,640 and half over. The published range runs $65,640 at the tenth percentile to $87,850 at the ninetieth. Experience and employer move an individual a long way inside that.
  • In Alaska the take-home figure of $63,450, from $77,640, assumes one filer, no dependants, and nothing paid into a pension before tax. Each of those lowers the bill, so treat it as the plain case. City and school-district income taxes are not included either, and in a few states those are real money. It ranks 170 of 430 occupations here.
  • One number stands for prices across all of Alaska, which is a simplification — big cities cost far more than small towns. Read $62,380, the adjusted value of that $77,640 median, as a way to compare states fairly, not as a quote for any particular place. The two datasets are also from different years. This job sits at 170 of 430 in the state.
  • Figures are distribution medians for physical therapist assistants in Alaska, not entry or offer rates. The published band runs $65,640 to $87,850; within-state dispersion of that width routinely exceeds the dispersion between states, so tenure, employer and metropolitan area predict an individual's pay better than geography does.
  • Take-home for Alaska is computed for a single filer taking the standard deduction with no dependants and no pre-tax contributions, giving $63,450 from $77,640. Each omitted item reduces taxable income, so the figure is a lower bound on retained pay for this household shape. Municipal and school-district income taxes are excluded, which understates the burden materially in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Maryland. The occupation ranks 170 of 430 locally.
  • Price deflation uses one statewide parity for Alaska, so $62,380 — the adjusted value of that $77,640 median — establishes comparability between states rather than accuracy within one. The wage and parity series are dated independently, each following its own publication cycle, and neither is projected forward. This occupation sits at 170 of 430 locally.

Questions people ask

How much does pay for this job actually vary?

The range here is narrow. From $65,640 at the bottom tenth to $87,850 at the top, pay for this work clusters rather than spreads.

Does a bigger number here mean I am better off?

The number and the value are different things. Alaska costs more than the national average, so this take-home stretches like $62,380 rather than its face figure.

Is most of this wage taxed away?

No. $63,450 survives, because Alaska levies no wage income tax. The federal share does not change with the state you work in.

Can I compare this job across every state?

This occupation is published everywhere — all 51 of them — so comparing states measures real differences rather than gaps in the data.

What is the dispersion of this occupation's wage distribution?

The tenth-to-ninetieth percentile span ($65,640 to $87,850) sits at or below the family's median dispersion, indicating relatively standardized compensation. Percentiles are published per state, so this dispersion is specific to Alaska rather than a national figure.

How does the state price level affect real compensation?

Alaska's regional price parity sits above the national average, so nominal wages overstate purchasing power. Deflating take-home by the state price level gives $62,380 in national-average terms. ⚠️ RPPs are an all-items index; housing parities vary far more widely than the headline figure.

Why is the take-home ratio comparatively high in this state?

Alaska levies no personal income tax on wages, so take-home of $63,450 reflects the federal layer and FICA alone. Federal income tax and FICA are unchanged; states without a wage income tax generally recover revenue through consumption and property bases instead.

Is this occupation's state coverage complete?

State-level estimates are published for all 51 jurisdictions for this occupation, so cross-state comparison is not confounded by suppression. ⚠️ Estimates remain survey-based and carry sampling error; small differences between adjacent states should not be over-read.